KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said it was notified on Wednesday that one of the four pre-conditions for the RM10.79 billion proposal to privatise the airports operator has been fulfilled.

MAHB said the joint offerors in the takeover offer informed the group that the General Authority for Competition of Saudi Arabia (GAC) has issued a certificate on Tuesday, confirming that the deal does not require notification to the competition authority.

Accordingly, MAHB said this pre-condition related to GAC has been fulfilled.

The GAC certificate is one of the four pre-conditions required for the privatisation deal. The other approvals are required from Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), Turkish Competition Authority and Egyptian Competition Authority.

Last month, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Employees Provident Fund, New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) - via a consortium dubbed Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd - announced a conditional voluntary offer to acquire all the remaining 1.12 billion shares in MAHB not already held by them at RM11 per share in cash. They also intend to delist MAHB.

Upon completion of the offer, MAHB will be wholly-owned by GDA, which will be 40%-owned by Khazanah, 30% by EPF, and the remaining 30% by GIP Aurea Pte Ltd.

GIP Aurea is 83.33%-owned by GIP and 16.67%-owned by ADIA. This would give GIP an effective 25% stake in GDA while ADIA would have a 5% shareholdings in the private vehicle that wholly-own MAHB.

Shares of MAHB closed five sen or 0.5% lower at RM9.90 on Wednesday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM16.52 billion. 

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